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At the same time that the Department of Defense (DOD) was
conducting misleading “show tours” of the detention center at
Guantánamo Bay Naval Station in July for U.S. Senators, up to 200
prisoners were actively engaged in a hunger strike to protest their
inhumane treatment. From early July through July 25, 2005, the hunger
strike became so severe that the DOD was forced to place approximately
50 of these men on IV’s. During the tours, Senators were prohibited
from speaking directly to any detainees.

After observing only detainees in Camp Four, the Senators left
with an inaccurate view of the detainees’ conditions. Senator Pat
Roberts (R-Kansas), for example, stated on July 11, 2005, that
“everything we saw is consistent with what we have learned from the
Senate Intelligence Committee’s ongoing oversight of operations at
GTMO.” And in describing the treatment of the prisoners, he declared
that “it is really hard for me to imagine any better treatment that
this country could provide for those kind of people. They are treated
humanely and respectfully.” (http://roberts.senate.gov/press_releases.html, July 11 audio link)

Yet, the prisoners were protesting their current lack of basic human rights and dignity:

As Jarallah Al-Marri, a prisoner from Qatar, stated, “I
participated in a hunger strike for 17 days to protest the inhumane
conditions and religious persecution I and hundreds of other prisoners
have been subject to at Guantánamo.”

Further details of the seriousness of the prisoners’ claims are
also emerging. Al-Marri, for example, was hospitalized as a result of
his hunger strike and a deteriorating heart condition, and placed on an
IV. He told his attorney, Jonathan Hafetz of Gibbons Del Deo Dolan
Griffinger & Vecchione, that the government had a nurse make sexual
advances towards him while he was lying in his hospital bed in a vain
attempt to convince him to give up his hunger strike. Al-Marri has
been in solitary confinement for over 16 months and today often goes as
long as 3 weeks without being allowed outside his cell for recreation.
The lights in Al-Marri's cell remain on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
and he has been denied adequate bedding and clothing. Al-Marri is able
to sleep only 2 hours a night, and his physical and mental health have
deteriorated significantly.

Al-Marri’s attorney, Jonathan Hafetz of Gibbons Del Deo Dolan
Griffinger & Vecchione stated, “Al-Marri has been denied his most
basic human rights and he courageously took a stand against his
continued mistreatment.”

Despite the DOD’s denials of mistreatment, military officials have
since acknowledged the validity of the prisoners’ claims of a lack of
basic human necessities by, for example, agreeing to provide prisoners
with clean bottled water. Yet many of the detainees’ concerns have
gone unaddressed and the DOD has refused to provide timely and accurate
public information about the conditions at Guantánamo.

“The DOD’s close monitoring of the hunger strikes makes clear that
the military was fully aware of the severity and nature of the
prisoners’ allegations at the time of the Senators’ tours. The
inescapable conclusion is that the DOD actively sought to cover-up
their mistreatment of prisoners. The DOD was forced to respond to the
hunger strike due to the prisoners’ courage and their lawyers’ efforts
to make their treatment public,” stated Center for Constitutional
Rights attorney Gitanjali Gutierrez.